Nigerian Baptist Convention


Nigerian Baptist Convention is a Baptist Christian denomination, affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance, in Nigeria. Rev. Dr. Samson Olasupo Adeniyi Ayokunle is the president. The headquarters is in Ibadan, Nigeria.

History

The Nigerian Baptist Convention has its origins a foreign mission of the Southern Baptist Convention of the United States of America in 1849 with the appointment of Rev. Thomas Jefferson Bowen as the first missionary to the country. He arrived in Badagry area of the current Lagos State on the 5th of August, 1850. The Nigerian Baptist Convention was officially formed in 1914. It has started other Baptist conventions in West Africa notably in Ghana, and in Sierra Leone, now the. In 2016, it had 13,000 churches and 7,000,000 members.

Medical Institutions

The Nigerian Baptist Convention also operates several hospitals and medical training institutions across the country. The Baptist Medical Centre in Ogbomoso, now called Bowen University Teaching Hospital, remains one of the leading hospitals and has been in use as a university teaching hospital by the Bowen University in Iwo, since December 2009. The Nigerian Baptist Convention operates other top flight Baptist medical centres located in Eku and Saki; and several other minor Baptist hospitals across Nigeria. Others includes Oliveth Baptist Hospital, Oliveth heights, Oyo, Oyo State.

Educational institutions

The Nigerian Baptist Convention has founded and operated thousands of primary and secondary schools most of which were taken during military dictatorships and operated as public institutions. In 2001, Baptist Mission Schools was formed to oversee schools handed back to the Convention. The Lagos State Government handed over four of her schools taken over in 1976. The Baptist Mission Schools is headed by Dr. Tide Olalere and presently oversees fifteen Secondary Schools and two primary schools.
The Nigerian Baptist Convention now operates Bowen University, named in honor of Rev. Thomas Jefferson Bowen, the first American Baptist missionary from the Southern Baptist Convention. Bowen University is located at Iwo in Osun State, and is housed in the old 1,300 acre campus of the Baptist College, a teacher-training institution on a beautiful hill just outside the city. Bowen University opened in 2002 as a residential institution with 500 students with a current enrollment of about 3,000 students, and a target capacity of at least 5,500 students. The idea of a Nigerian Baptist university was conceived in 1938, and endorsed in 1957 by the Nigerian Baptist Convention. Bowen University is “conceived as a centre of learning and research of distinction, combining academic excellence with love of humanity, borne out of a God-fearing attitude, in accordance with the Baptist tradition of ethical behavior, social responsibility and democratic ethos”.

Theological Institutions

The Nigerian Baptist Convention operates ten theological training centers for pastors, the largest being the Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary founded in 1898 in Ogbomoso, which grants undergraduate, masters’ and doctoral degrees. In the 1950s, a survey of African seminaries by Bishop Stephen Neill ranked the Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary as one of the best seminaries in Africa.
The theological institutions are:
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